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T H E 



PEOGRESS OF LEAENLNG, 



A P O E M 



Delivered (ft the Celebration of 

THE CENTENNIAL OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 

Neir York, April Vith. ISHT. 



/ 



BY 



GEORGE LANSING TAYLOR. S.T.D.,L.H.D. 

I Class of I8fil.) 




J' NOV 23 m?/^ 



Sec Page 42, Line 15. 
NEW YORK: 

JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER. 

1887. 






Copyright, 1887, 

BY 

THE PROVIDENT BOOK CO. 



TREFACE ^ND T)EDICATfON. 



ro tf)c IXcb. ff, ^. 19. Barnartr, BM.m., 3ia.l3.» 3L.m^B., 
tf)r acavnctr anii ilcbcrcti IDrrsitrrnt of Columbia CollcQir, 
tf)is bolumc is atrmirinsln liciiicatclr. 

By his appointment the poem was written and 
read, as a part of the official festivities in celebration 
of the Centennial Anniversary of the re-chartering 
of old Kino;'s College, New York, and its change of 
name to Columbia College, by th.e Legislature of the 
State of New York, in the year 1787. 

As an Essay the author hopes his labor may have 
some value to his undergraduate friends in his A /ma 
MaUr,—^t least to the Freshmen ; aUhough he fears 
the Rhadamanthine severity of the Sophomores. He 
only humbly asks that they will not be too hard on 



nmi. 



As Columbia College occupies but a small space 
in the work, and that mainly devoted to personages 
of historic interest to all Americans, the hope is 
indulged that students of other colleges, and many 



4 - PRE FA CE. 

young people who have nev^er been to college, may 
here find something to instruct and interest them. 

A word as to the " double" or " feminine" rhymes. 
Whatever may be said as to the value of rhyme to 
poetry in general, it is certain that in English didac- 
tic verse, 'designed to be read or recited as a public 
address, rhyme, and regularity in it, is a very im- 
portant aid both to the ear and the mind. But the 
heavy, hammering fall of the strong masculine 
rhymes of the English heroic couplet is regarded as 
tiresome by the modern hearer. The author has 
therefore employed the feminine rh3^mes in order to 
give more lightness, grace, and flexibility to the 
verse, which, in spite of the additional syllable, can 
be read more fluently and rapidly than the pure 
iambic pentameter couplet. 

The Hymn following the poem was also written 
by request of President Barnard, to be sung at the 
celebration, and is inserted here as a proper accom- 
paniment to the longer piece, and as the author's 
more special tribute to his beloved '' Columbia^ 

G. L. T. 

Brooklyn, Nov. 15, 1887. 



THE PROGRESS OE LEARNING. 



Of Learning's Progress, Learning's schools, and 
sages, — 
Her march ilhistrious down the illumined ages, — 
Her toils, her martyrdoms, her triumphs glorious, — 
Her sway, forever widening and victorious, — 
Sing great CaUiope ! — if, condescending 
To mortal prayer, thine ear is still attending ! 
If, while chaste Dian's hounds at dawn are baying, 
I'hy footsteps still o'er Helicon are straying ;^ 
If through the Muses' Grove, while winds are sighing, 
The Nine still breathe, to pensive souls replying ; — 
Then hear, oh hear, my trembling invocation ; — 
Accept a reverent spirit's pure libation; 
And grant, from Hippocrene's fount, perennial. 
One thrilling draught to crown Columbia's high cen- 
tennial ! 

A noble college in a mighty city — 
A life of thought and action, wise and witty — 



O THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

That is the mould that shapes a plastic nation, 
The torch that lights the march of civilization ; 
And o'er and o'er, since time's untold beginning, 
Has Learning shown mankind new worlds for win- 

nins:, 
And led his exodus, with beams benignest, 
From savage night, to dawn, and day divinest. 

What lore crowned Enoch's soul, to heaven trans- 
lated, 
Earth's first great seer and bard, " TJi Initiated,'' 
Whose name, walk, words, still speak his high voca- 
tion. 
Truth's torch between the Deluge and Creation; 
Whose beams sublime, across the whelming ocean, 
Flash earth's first faith, her solemn, pure devotion ; — 
Time's morning star, that warned a world from sin- 
ning. 
And prophesied earth's end from her beginning. 

When first from out the vast diluvian surges 
The Orient world on Historj^'s sight emei'ges. 
Who taught th' Akkadian, long ere the Chaldean, 
To map his zodiac on the empyrean ? — 
To sheathe his bow, that slew the stag and sparrow, 
And stamp his rude speech with his flint-head ar- 
row ? — 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 'J 

'Twas he taught Nimrod's Cushite reahn in Shinar, 
Whose bricks Chaldean spell a tale diviner 
Than Grecian marbles, Egypt's granite glory, 
The wondrous, world-remembered Deluge-story, — 
Old ere, from Bactrian heights, the Aryan races 
From Ind to Iceland filled earth's fairest places; 
Old ere the Vedic h3'mns and Zend-Avesta 
Took different tongues, in time's unmeasured vista. 
On him Chaldean, Babylonian, builded ; 
His pristine forms th' Assyrian carved and gilded ; 
The powerful Persian graved the chiselled mountain 
With symbols borrowed from this far-off fountain ; 
And tribes he never knew, and conquering nations. 
Wrote with his signs new laws and revelations. 

What might v lore, that still mocks time's endeavor, 
Erst grew where mystic Nile flows on forever! 
What dynasties of kings, and priests, and sages. 
Whose sculptured forms o'erlook the wrecks of ages ! 
Their mummied faces, from oblivion rising, 
To-day look forth, a living world surprising. 
O'er tracts of time where toiling thought grows 

wcarv. 
While populous realms have changed to deserts 

dreary. 
And lands unknown, from savage darkness springing, 
Set all the sounding trumps of Fame a-ringing! 



8 THE PROGRESS OF LEARKhXG. 

What science reared those works, with toil un- 
bounded, 
Where steam and steel both stand to-da}^ confounded ? 
What art hewed down the rockj^ promontory, 
To shape the giant sphinx, whose dateless story 
Past Cheops' years, that History scarce can number, 
Goes back to times that in oblivion slumber? 
What engineers hid mysteries stupendous 
In Cheops' geometric pile tremendous, — 
Mechanic, metric, astronomic wonders, 
Where all our boasted skill but gropes and blunders? 
What rites, traditions, liturgies m3'sterious, — 
What songs of bards, what pontiffs' sway imperious,— 
What hoar}^ annals, from man's first migration, — 
What soundless, shoreless seas of speculation, — ■ 
What dazzling visions, cosmic and theistic. 
Illumed and rapt th' Egyptian sage and mystic! 
Egypt, the fount, th' abj^ss, of lore primeval, 
Till sunk in sottish shame beyond retrieval I — 
The One, the Sole, the Infinite, th' Eternal, 
Exchanged for dreams, and brutes, and imps in- 
fernal ! 

Now, o'er this earth-lore's fall and wreck colossal, 
The heavenl}^ lore sends forth its first apostle, 
A soul sublime, whose form still looms prodigious, 
Time's mightiest genius, meekest, most religious; 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. " 9 

V'ersed in all Ec^ypt's wisdom, war, and learning, 

But grander light than Egypt knew discerning. 

When Moses graduates at Heliopolis, 

As senior wrangler of the world's metropolis, — 

Master of arts and lore and science founded 

Ere Noah's keel on Ararat had grounded, — 

Then learns Theology by Sinai's blazing, 

What wonder all the centuries still stand gazing! 

What wonder serfs and slaves enact a drama 

That thrones Jehovah Lord, o'er Phtha and Brahma, 

Baal, and Jove, and all the demon rabble 

Of godlings born of dark and dreamy babble ! 

What wonder miracle and learning, blending, 

Dazzle all time with glory never ending, 

A light beyond eclipse, beyond enhancement, — 

The moral landmark of the world's advancement! 

See Daniel, trained in Babylon's royal college, — 
The radiant throne of oriental knowledge,^ — 
Then Chancellor, to set all Asia burning 
With Zion's lore, beyond the Magi's learning ! 
E'en Daniel's youth, a monarch's anger braving, — 
The forfeit lives of envious rivals saving, — 
Or Daniel fall'n, 'mid roaring lions dwelling 
While sleepless kings night's lonely hours are telling, 
Is nobler, grander far, than Daniel ruling 
From Nile to India, had he no such schooling ; — 



lO THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

But sage, seer, viceroy, joined, e'en Zoroaster 
Pales in the light of exiled Zion's Master, 
Whom Nebuchadnezzar, C3'rus, and Darius, 
Through three great reigns obey with reverence 
pious. 

Great Ezra, Artaxerxes' courtly scholar, — 
Doctor, ere old Bologna gave that collar, — 
A ready scribe in all the law of heaven. 
From Babylon ascends, to Zion given, 
Armed with imperial power and proclamation 
To rear God's house, and educate a nation. 
As editor for God, the first in story. 
He crow^ns the editorial chair with glory. 
Inspired to push Jehovah's mighty plan on. 
He lays its corner-stone, the Bible canon. 
His Bible college, Bible publication, 
Convert the city, crown the Restoration, 
And fix the beacon date for History's pages, 
The chronologic milestone of the ages. 

See mighty Paul, in classic Tarsus nourished, — 
Where Grecian arts, 'neath Rome's pi'otection^ 

flourished, — 
Till Zion's lore his powerful mind asserted; — 
Then by a lightning-flash from heaven converted ! 
Damascus, Antioch, heard the new-born teacher; 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING, II 

Asia and Europe owned the matchless preacher ; 
Rome, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, resounded ; 
Art stood abashed, Philosophy confounded ! — 
One college preacher shook the whole ^gean, 
And routed old (Jlympus' whole pantheon ! 
One missionary laid the vast foundation 
On which rose conquering Europe's transformation ; 
As one to-da}^ to Pauline faith returning. 
With more than solar fires, sets Afric burning ! 

From city schools and scholars learning rises; 
There minds are trained to grasp earth's grandest 

prizes. 
There all earth's light is focussed by refraction, 
And life and contact hre the soul to action. 

See Athens, blazing Eye of Greece, whose sages 
Have led the march of mind through wondrous 

stages ! 
There all the lore of lands Hellenic blended, 
And famous wits from all the world contended. 
There Socrates with jest his wisdom seasoned ; 
There Plato's soaring soul sublimely reasoned; 
There Aristotle's science scanned creation ; 
And Logic owned his mighty legislation ; 
There Zeno cramped, and Epicurus festered; 
There muses haunted every grove sequestered ; 
There artists carved and painted till earth w^ondered ; 



12 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

There poets sung, and oratory thundered ; 
There Homer's soul and song were more than native, 
For Greece was Homer, living and creative ; — 
Whose lyre across the gulf of time resounded, 
Till Athens fiourished, on his numbers founded ; — 
One University, state, city, nation, — 
Where but to live was a liberal education. 

See Alexandria's poly glottic mistion, 
Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Pagan, Jewish, Christian; 
Ambition's prize, in commerce sole dictator ; 
A*second Athens, and almost a greater! 
A Babylon of schools is her Musseum ! 
A million volumes crowd her Serapseum, 
From plundered Pergamos, where lore was cher- 
ished. 
And countless conquered towns whose names have 

perished ! 
There fell Philosophy's martyr, fair Hypatia, 
Whose murder shamed the Christian's Dei Gratia ! 
There millionaires who learning ne'er promoted 
Died in contempt, their costly burials hooted ; 
And kings laid by their crowns for nobler pleasures, 
The sage's science or the poet's measures. 

W^hat schools, what scholars, thronged those 
crowded portals 
With all the lore that ever busied mortals, — 



THE PROGRESS OF l.EARMXG. 1 3. 

Ilindii and Zend, Persian, Semitic, Coptic, 

The frozen Druid, fiery ^thiopic, — 

All mingled in a vortex transcendental 

To make that mystic compound, — Oriental ! 

This, blent with dreamy Greek, and Roman caustic,. 

With Jew and Christian, gave the world the Gnostic ! 

The man who logic scorned, whose thoughts were 

pasans, 
Whose fancies facts, whose deities were aeons ; 
Whose gnosis taught the unseen world such system 
That ere he came all heaven must have missed him ! 
The Gnostic knew, and knowing soared, elated, — 
Before the Agnostic wonder was created ! 
That modern ^T^olus, burst with his own puffing ! 
Wisdom's stuffed owl, whose stare betrays the 

stuffing ! 

From Eastern climes, with Learning's spring-time 
vernal. 
Her glory now gilds seven-hilled Rome, eternal • 
Not here with orient warmth, nor genius Attic, 
But earnest, sober, solid, systematic. 
Here Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, the Triviuni, 
In order went before the great Qnadrivimn, 
Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, 
And ninefold Music ; such her schools' economy ; 
Seven Liberal Arts, from conquered Greece all bor^ 
rowed. 



14 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Who civilized her captor, while she sorrowed ; 
And ruled, by teaching Rome, an empire vaster 
Than ever owned the Macedonian master. 

Lo, Romcs Augustan Age ! A dazzling focus 
Of mind and power ! An ice-dissolving crocus, 
That burst Rome's frozen soil in light ethereal, 
And led the summer of her reign imperial 
Here Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, Lucretius, 
Ruled epic, ode, and satire's lash facetious. 
Or taught great Nature's laws with zeal profounder 
Than atoms gained in any Greek expounder. 
Here Tully stood alone in oratory. 
Sole rival of the great Athenian's glory. 
Here Caesar, Sallust, Tacitus, and Livy, 
And Pliny, to all Nature's secrets privy, — 
Who fell by dread Vesuvius' jealous arrow, — ■ 
Met " Moral Seneca," and '' Learned Varro." 
Here Plato's Grove and Ptolemy's Musesum 
Were blent, in great Vespasian's Athanaeum, 
Where knights and princes hung on great Quintilian, 
Longinus' master, Rome's supreme civilian, 
Till Paulus, Ulpian, and great Papinian 
In Jurisprudence pioneered Justinian. 
Immortal Rome! Earth's soldier, ruler, lawyer! 
How vast her fall ! Success her great destroyer : 
A world o'erthrown, like Dagon's temple, pouring 
To crush its Samson, past all time's restoring ! 



THE PROGRESS OE LEARNEXG. 1 5 

Constantinople, next, was Learning's center, 
Where commerce, arms, and empire bade her enter; 
Where Christian hjre, on Grecian culture founded, 
Beyond all dreams of Greece or Rome abounded. 
There schools, and colleges, and congregations 
Of scholars gathered from a score of nations. 
There every tongue was taught, and art, and science, 
By names that bid oblivion deftance. 
There soared that matchless dome, almost supernal, 
To Saint Sophia, Wisdom the Eternal ; 
Not named for Paul or Peter, John or Stephen, 
Michael, or Gabriel, or the host of heaven. 
But that divine Intelligence, whose token, 
This mind-ruled cosmos, stands from one word 

spoken. 
Constantinople ! Christian learning's Mecca ! 
A well where Science served, as erst Rebecca ! 
While Europe groped in darkness mediaeval, 
Till Luther's faith — and ink-pot ! — smote the Devil, — 
While Rome lay whelmed 'neath barbarism's moun- 
tain,— 
The Golden Horn was civilization's fountain ! 
The fierce Crusader, b}' the East enlightened, 
Brought home a beam with which all Europe bright- 
ened ; 
And Northern Italy, Europe's dazzling Phosphorus, 
Was lit by conquering Venice from the Bosphorus, 



i6 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 



And bade that wondrous thirteenth eentnry waken — 
The mightiest stride old Time till then had taken I 

While fiery Persian, Saracen, and Tartar, 
Around her ramparts strove for empire's charter - 
'Mid hordes of Huns and Avars, Goths, Sarmatians 
That whelmed the world like ocean inundations, 
Byzantium stood, as on old chaos' border,— 
Th' impregnable stronghold of light and order! 
Her great Justinian's code still lies like granite 
Beneath all modern law that rules this planet,— 
The fadeless monument of great Tribonian,—' 
Whose genius, lore, and greed, were all Baconian! 
Her prudent Narses, valiant Belisarius, 
Upheld her arms through conflicts vast and various 
Her Christian missions made Ceylon her neighbor' 
And brought from far Cathay, the silkworms' labor.' 
Her ho}nos and hojnoios still draw quota 
From Learning's hosts, to fight o'er one iota — 
Christology's great conflict, none fought better,— 
Error's long battle for her shortest letter ! 
A thousand years she stood, through storms in- 
cessant. 
Before the cross went down beneath the ci-escent ' 
Her siege, that ancient battering-rams began o 
Was finished 'mid the roar of modern cannon • 
And when she fell,— Antiquity expiring,— 
Her funeral pyre ten thousand torches' firing,- 



on, 



l^HE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 17 

The Western world, that hailed her exiled sages, 
Began the mighty march of modern ages ! 

What though from Spain to Samarcand, unbroken, 
The Moslem's creed, through lands and tongues 

was spoken ? 
What though from Cordova, and vast Sahara, 
Through Egypt, India, Persia, and Bokhara, 
From Sultan down to Sheik, and shoe-clout lowly, 
Arabia's lore, alone, was prized and holy ? 
•E'en thus was Greek Minerva's realm extended. 
For Grecian lore with Cross and Koran blended. 
Arabia's sword the Christian's creed might throttle, 
But e'en Arabia bowed to .Vristotle! — 
Nay, faug/it him to the Goth, the Frank, the Briton, 
Ere Europe read the tongue the sage had written ! 
She brought from India those miraculous midgets, — 
The algebraic symbols, and the digits. 
Her Aviccnna, born bv Oxus' ri"er, — 
Her sage x\verrhoes, from the Guadalquivir, — 
Five hundred years taught Europe Healing's canon, 
The one, — the other, Logic's great Organon. 

O'er whelmed at Tours, from Andalusia banished^ 
The Saracen from Europe's culture vanished ! 
The year that gave to Spain a new world's splendor,. 
Beheld Granada's thousand towers surrender ; — 
The Moor's weird empire, eight long centuries rear- 
ing, 



1 8 THE PROGRESS OF LEARN I XG. 

A magic realm, dissolving, — disappearing ! — 
Gone like a vision ! — Yet the Alhambra lingers, 
To fade and crumble 'neath Time's hallowing fin- 
gers ;— 
A dream in stone! — A song in alabaster! — 
A marble poem, by a wizard master! 

Ring out the Past ! Ring in its grander riv^al ! 
Lo, Europe stirs with Learning's great revival ! 
From cloisters dim, where mumbling monks had 

slumbered. 
Rise classic schools, and colleges unnumbered ; 
And Attic Greek, that fled the Moslem's matin, 
In turn drives out the barbarous monkish Latin, 
Till Eastern lore, with Western vigor blending, 
Blooms in a resurrection all-transcending ! — 
Constantinople's nobler incarnation ! — 
A grander than the Hindu's transmigration! 
The ancient universities, whose splendors 
Gird Learning's throne, her world-renowned defend- 
ers, — 
Whose light 'mid Europe's darkness paled and 

dwindled, — 
Now shine once more, hke morning stars rekindled ; 
And later schools, like constellations, rising 
Illume the world with radiance still surprising. 

Hail, old Salernum ! medicine's restorer! 
Spring from Casino's cloistered mountain, o'er her! 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARXIXG. IQ 

Europe's first University ! Where centered 

Jew, Moslem, Christian, all as equals entered! 

Here Galen and Hippocrates, translated, 

Man's reverence for his body re-instated. 

Here Constantinc, from Spain to India famous, — 

More travelled than Pythagoras of SamoG, — 

Who Egypt's, Bagdad's, Babylon's schools had 

sounded, — 
The medic lore of East and West expounded, 
Till Europe, Asia, Africa, came kneeling 
To proud Salernum for the Art of Healing. 
Her fame for centuries eclipsed all others ; 
And Woman here, taught, practiced, with her 

brothers. 

Bologna, next, arose to fame imperious. 
Where Jurisprudence reigned with great Irnerius. 
''Mother of Lazus' \ — All Europe sought her portal, 
By one transcendent genius made immortal ! — 
O'er whom Tribonian's shade inspiring hovered, 
Till great Justinian's code was re-discovered ; — , 
His Institutes and Pandects all unfolded ; — 
And one Irnerius Europe's law remoulded ! 

Lo, ancient Paris dawns, renowned ! — the preg- 
nant 
'' Mother of Universities' ! Queen regnant ! 



20 TH£ PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

From schools of mighty Charlemagne descended, — 
Three centuries' fruits at last in Paris blended ! 
First William of Champeaux her fame exalted, 
Till in great AbeLxA.rd to heaven it vaulted, — 
Mind's centurj^-plant 'mid sorrow's midnight bloom- 
ing !— 
Philosophy Theology illuming ! — 
Reason and Faith, by genius all-inspiring, 
Fused in an eloquence all Europe firing ! 
Thus Paris rose. In youth great Albert sought 

her ; — 
Angelic Thomas deathless glor}^ brought her ; — 
Her Sorbonne's great decrees, by kings respected, 
The rights of thought, the rights of thrones, pro- 
tected, — 
Umpire sublime 'twixt creeds, and crowns, and 

writers, — 
The Areopagus of swords and miters I — 
The " Sinai of the West" ! Here Peter Lombard 
Proclaimed more " Sentences" than Moses num- 
bered ; 
And forged the schoolman's chains, all Europe bind- 
ing 
In Aristotle's mill, like Samson grinding, 
Till Oxford's Occam, Logic's bounds exploring. 
Bade Faith soar free, 'mid unseen worlds adorinof ! — 



THE PROGRESS OE LEARiXING. 21 

One giant blow the schoolmen's fabric crumbled ; — 
Its barren splendors to oblivion turn. hied ! 

Hail Venerable Oxford ! England's glory ! — 
Oxford where Alfred's legend lingers hoary ! — 
Where emulous kings have opened wells Pierian, 
Through Norman, Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian ; 
And centuries have reared, with toil unceasing. 
Mind's noblest monuments, lor aye increasing! 
Here old Saint Frideswyde stood, where monks were 

chanting 
While Alfred Anglo-Saxon lore was planting. 
Here Great head, bishop, patriot, scholar, teacher, — 
The generous humanist, — the powerful preacher, — 
Reformer, legislator, sage, and brother, 
Was Oxford's founder more than any other. 
Here Roger taught Induction's great arcanum, 
Three centuries ere Fraiieis Nezu Orgamiin. 
Here keen Duns Scotus proved existence real, 
Despite Aquinas' Platonist ideal ; 
And trained invincible Oecani s mind, that shattered 
The schoolmen's fabric, — like a vapor scattered ! 
Here exiled Dante far from Florence wandered, 
While time's sublimest trilogy he pondered. 
Here godlv Wiekliffe wrote his great translation, 
The '' Morning Star" of Europe's Reformation. 
Here sturdy Hampden, — Sidney learned and 

knightly, — 



22 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Freedom's twin pole-stars, shine forever brightly. 

Here Hale and Blackstone Law's dread scepter 
wielded — 

When guilt was doomed, and innocence was 
shielded ! — 

But ah ! When Hale burned witches, — though in 
sadness, 

Who then shall chide our younger England's mad- 
ness I 

Here gifted ^Nlore, like Plato of Cecropia, 

Wrought out his New Atlantis, famed Utopia. 

Here Hobbes and Locke, in Hume through Berke- 
ley landing, 

Confound what they explain, man's understanding ! — 

If sense is all, then being is sensation, 

Life is a phantasm, death annihilation ! 

Mind, soul, arehgments, — thought is fermentation, — 

God, heaven, and bell, are figures of oration ! 

Religion, miracle, are frauds and errors, — 

Materialism is true, with all its terrors ! 

Preachers and moralists are rhetoricians, 

And atheists the only sound logicians ! 

The ethic rule is sharp utilitarian, 

And man the prince of brutes, — a bright barbarian ! 

All rights are his who proves in fight the strongest. 

The most relentless, or who lives the longest ! 

All fare alike, who die of martyr frenzy, 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 23 

Or hangman's rope ! — of shame, or influenza ! 
The universe is all one mill of matter, — 
That grinds itself ! — Its only grist the clatter ! 
And Mill, this " vacuum process" grandly clothing, 
Grinds nothing, out of nothing, back to nothing ! 
Not so thought Boyle, whose life to Truth was given ; 
Nor Wesley, called to point the world to heaven, — 
Whom Oxford praised, then drove from her pavil- 
ions, — 
To-day her grandest name for growing millions ! — 
Her "" Dominiis Ilhnninatio Mca,'" 
Through one great graduate made the world's idea ! 

But Cambridge? — shalJ prgud Oxford's fame, 
o'ershading. 
Obscure her laurels, deathless and unfading? — 
Her age, from Saxon Croyland's abbey dated ? 
Her glorious line of worthies venerated ? 
Heirs of Northumbria's saints from old lona — 
Renowned and loved beyond the Druid's Mona ! — 
Of Casdmon, Bseda, heirs, whose lyre and story 
First gave our English tongue the muses' glory ? — 
Nay, Cambridge, Mother of free thought and mar- 
tyrs. 
Outshines all courtly pomps, and knightly garters ! 
Her Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Rowland Taylor, 
With England's holiest martyr-fires empale her! 



24 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Her Jeremy Taylor, from the martyr reaching, 
Still reigns, the Chrysostom of English preaching ! 
Her Cromwell stands, old England's stoutest spirit 
Whose wholesome dread all tyrants still inherit ! 
Her Bacon shines, the sun of civilization, — 
A sun with spots ! — like that which rules creation ! 
Her Newton, born a quart cup not o'erspilling, 
Still more and more the universe is filling; — 
The Genie in the vial, of old fable, 
Uncorked, to grasp the constellations able ! 
Her Cud worth Hobbe's Leviathan confuted. 
Her Porson's Greek w^ith Greeks the palm disputed. 
She gave us stately Dry den, Byron blazing, — 
And flogged sublime John Milton I — tale amazing ! — 
Oxford despair ! stern Fate thy fame is clogging ! 
Time gave but one John Milton for a flogging ! 

How vast the shock dead Europe's slumber shak- 
ing,— 

Her midnight gloom to mental morn awaking ! 

What schools, renowned, like stars, that dawn at- 
tended, 

Whose cross-fires in a blaze of glory blended ! 

Spain's Salamanca, Portugal's Coimbra, — 

Where fell the Moor, as Croesus fell at Thvmbra! 

Pavla, where, with school-boy tribulation, 

Columbus learned his wondrous navigation ! 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 25 

Naples and Padua, Pisa, Rome, Siena, 

And, — next in breadth to Paris, — old Vienna ! 

Prague, whose Jerome and Huss defied Rome's 

frowning, 
Bohemia's name with martyr glory crowning I 
Revered old Heidelberg, whose half-millennial 
Has stirred the schools to many a young centennial ; 
Where Lutheran and Calvinist contended, 
Till in her catechism both were blended ! 
Leipsic, that gave us Goethe, Klopstock, Schiller, 
The Schlegels, Fichte, Mendelssohn, and Hiller; 
Where Luther routed Eck, — a famed rehearsal, — 
And Leibnitz rose to genius universal ! — 
Then, too, 'rose Sweden's glory, old Upsala, 
On hoar}^ shrines of Odin and Valhalla; — 
She guards her precious codex argent nis, 
And Botany was born with her Linnaeus ! 
Antwerp piles Acts of Saints on old John Bolland ; 
But Leyden shines, the light of free-born Holland, 
Where Europe's Boerhaave, Scaliger precocious, 
Join fame with great Arminius and Grotius, 
Who freed theology from logic's fetter, 
And gave man's will a broader scope, and better. 
Scotch Glasgow nursed John Knox, whose righteous 

thunder 
Shook fair, frail Mary's soul with awe and wonder! 
Geneva Calvin boasts, Fate's legislator. 



26 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Divine and scholar, naagistrate, dictator; 

A saint in life, a prodigy of learning-. 

But from whose iron creed the world is turning. 

Copernicus, the Struvcs, Dorpat's trio, 

Illustrious stand with Pisa's Galileo; 

And Konigsberg defies time's farthest season 

To obsolete her Kant's Critique of Reason! 

Dead Wittemberg's unchallengeable sanction 

For deathless fame, is Luther and Mclancthon. 

A new world dawned with her immortal theses, 

An age whose splendor evermore increases; 

The giant era of the Reformation 

That wrought the modern world's emancipation. 

And launched the mind of man relumed, and bounding 

Along a new career, all time astounding! 

Erasmus, Rotterdam's renowned misnomer, 

Claimed by all schools, and cities more than Homer, — 

Himself an University concentered, — 

He helped the New Life's dawn, but never entered ! 

He seemed a central sun, supreme and chosen, 

But shrank to a far-off planet, faint and frozen ; 

For souls that dare not act the truth they cherish, 

Despite all light, all lore, can onl}' perish ! 

Lo, now, 'mid wakening Europe's strong commo- 
tion, 
A New World dawns beyond the Western ocean ! 



THE PROGRESS OE LEARNING. 2/ 

A continent, en,^ulphed, forgotten, perished, 
Or only in oblivion's legend cherished. 
Looms from its mists once more on mortal vision, — 
Hesperides restored ! The Fields Elysian ! 
Hail ! Old F^i-sang ! By China roamed and written, 
Rre at Chalons Attila's Huns were smitten ! 
Where schools and shrines the Boodhist's zeal re- 
warded, — 
In China's hoary Year-Books all recorded! 
Here, too, came Erin's Brendan, westward sailing 
A thousand years ago, with faith unfailing, 
And found a mighty land ; and, home returning. 
Told a strange tale, that set all Clonfert burning ! 
Here Iceland's sea-kings colonized and planted ; 
And Cambrian Madog came, as bards have chanted. 
Here old tradition, new-born science, pointed, 
Till genius led the way, by heaven anointed. 
And great Columbus came 1 Old Earth, astounded, 
Doubled her size I and Europe gazed, confounded ! 

Then, not on ruins of the lost Atlantis, — 
O'erwhelmed ere Solon sought th' Egyptian mantis; 
Nor where Copan, Palenquc, Mitla, dying. 
Left lonely, rune-carved piles, time's lore defying; 
But on the North's free hills, and plains unbounded, 
Behold earth's last and noblest empire founded ! 
Here great new realms, and states, and cities flourish. 



28 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Beyond the power of worn-out lands to nourish ! 

Here time's last progeny, a brood of Titans, 

Rise from the deep like Neptune's sea-born Tritons ! 

From earth's best races sprung, in time's best ages, 

Whose moral ardor in their offspring rages, 

'Mid throb and thunder as of fiery forges, 

Where Cyclops sweats 'neath .Etna's glowing 

gorges, 
A new mankind is born, be^^ond the olden ! 
Earth's Iron ages wheel into the Golden! 

The Golden Age of Learning ! Lo, a nation 
Whose corner-stones are Freedom, Education ; — 
Whose poorest child, at public charge may enter 
The realm of knowledge, to its radiant center ; 
And claim that heritage of science clearl}-, 
By centuries of sages bought so dearly I 

Behold a land where every grade and bevel 
Of old-world caste, has reached one glorious level ; — 
Not levelling down the swiftest to the slowest, 
But levelling ///.the humblest and the lowest ! 
A land that knows no monarch, and no peasant, 
Whose creed is God and Freedom, ever present ; 
Where aristocracy is virtuous talent. 
And knights and nobles are for right the gallant ; 
Where gifts and honors wait the honest winning 
Of high or low alike, from life's beginning ; 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 29 

Where millionaires are born amid the masses, 
And he's a snob who prates of " upper classes," 
And he's a knave, a pirate, who'd inherit 
Wages or worlds, by might, and not by merit ! 

In such a land, of Freedom, virtue, knowledge, 
Lo, Learning's lighthouse looms once more, the 

College I 
Beside the infant nation's cradle shining. 
To light her on to greatness past divining '. 

Old Harvard first. New England's proud reliance, 
Rose, strong in non-conformity and science ; 
Like Cambridge o'er the sea, her model older, — 
In Song and speculaticMi scarcely bolder! 
America's first school ! Here Eliot, sainted, 
Erst taught his Indian sachems, plumed and painted; 
And printed God's great word, in tongues now 

deader 
Than Zend or Sanscrit ! Such the zeal that led her 
To save those mystic tribes, so soon to vanish, 
Whose tragic memory Time can never banish! 
Illustrious Harvard ! on her seal engraving 
Her " CJiristo ct Ecclesice,'' — serving, saving ! — 
In this new world she stood Truth's shield and 

warder. 
In triune faith and missionary ardor. 
Oh, had she kept her Pilgrim founders' station 



30 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

On that first simple and sublime foundation, 

Her "Christ" had still been ''one with God the 

Father,"— 
And not a baptized Gnostic yEon, rather ! 
We hail her proud array of names transcendent, 
And greet her jubilee, with joy resplendent : 
Her orator, who abhors a style bombastic, 
But courts the polished, brilliant, and sarcastic : — 
His name, his work, where English breathes re- 
spected — 
To serve his country before kings selected : — 
Her bard, whose pungent pen, not quill nor metal, 
Was cut and sharpened from a Boston nettle ; 
And though he sings with wit, and classic graces. 
His guests and hearers twinge, and make wry faces! 

A long half-century passed ere Learning's pinion. 
Next Harvard, sought Virginia's " Old Dominion" — 
William-and-Mary there her touch created, 
The South's first college, — not renownless fated ; — 
Mother of Presidents ! whose constellation 
Of starry names shone o'er the infant nation, — 
Emblazoned high on Freedom's deathless roll-call, — 
Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, and Marshall ; — 
The Randolphs, Tylers, known to fame's recorder, — 
And old Phi Beta Kappa's glorious order! 



THE PROGRESS OE LEARNING. 3 1 

Next, honored Yale, by pilgrims' grandsons 
founded, 
Deserves her fame, by civilization bounded. 
A sturdy fort she stands, since " seventeen hundred," 
Whence Puritan artillery oft has thundered ; — 
New England's stern but earnest " orthodoxy" 
That neither goes to heaven nor hell by proxy ! 
There giant Edwaf ds' youthful genius budded ; — 
There Bellamy, Backus, Hopkins, Emmons, stud- 
ied; — 
There Dvvight and Silliman taught, and Taylor's 

ardor 
Thawed Old New England's creed, than granite 

harder, 
Till, 'spite foreordination, the " New Divinity," 
To Methodist fire revealed its sure affinity. 
Honor to Yale, — our Johnsons, twain, she bore us, 
And Barnard's world-wide mind, still ruling o'er 

us; — 
Our Philips, they, — and he our Alexander, 
Whose conquests build Columbia trebly grander! 

New Jersey, next, on Calvin's rugged logic, 
Arose to wield the scepter pedagogic : 
From quaint '' Log College" sprung, a fabric lowly, 
But crowned with Tennent's genius, learned and holy. 
Thence, throned at Nassau Hall, through night Cim- 
merian, 



32 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Her torch blazed forth to guide the Presbyterian. 
Her noble Witherspoon, from Knox descended. 
The scholar, patriot, legislator blended. 
Her patriot Rush, dread Alcohol's expounder, 
Great Temperance claims, — her scientific founder. 
Here Madison, o'er midnight oil industrious, 
Became Montpelier's sage, a name illustrious. 
And here, escaped New England's persecution. 
Great Edwards crowned an epoch's evolution, — 
Man's intellectual climax of endeavor 
To fathom God — Unfathomable forever ! 
Ulysses' bow, with Kant and Leibnitz trying, — 
And th' Infinite the finite still defying ! 
Twin-born in years with Wesley ! — Which is 

greater? 
The Polyphemus? — or the Re-creator? 

Hail, now, the goal where our long march is turn- 
ing ! 
Hail, old King's College ! Homestead of our 
yearning ! 
Columbia's Arya Varta pre-historic ! 
England's Corinthian shaft on Holland's Doric ! 
Hindered, while half a century wrangled, bartered, — 
At last America's fifth school was chartered 
By royal George's bounty, broad, unscanted. 
And Learning's shrine by Hudson's shore was 
planted. 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 33 

Not like the Puritan's unanimous region, 
Manhattan's soil I — Opinions here Averc legion. 
Not like Virginia, Anglican and steady, — 
New York was Cosmopolitan already ! 
Here English, Dutch and Huguenot, and German, 
Owned no decretal, pontiff, pact, or firman ; 
Till mingling forces, long in strife contending, 
Were joined at last, in old King's College blending, 
That rose, a sun from chaos, orbed and beaming, — 
Its radiance from a continent's capital streaming! 

Hail ! forms revered, that prayed and toiled to 

found her! 
Hail! Glorious names ! a galaxy around her! 
Stooj) from the skies, ye shades that o'er her cluster! 
And answer Aye ! to Fame's immortal muster! 
Thcv come ! Old England's crown and signet o'er 

them. 
And Canterbury's crozier gleams before them ! 
Colonial governors, councillors, and judges, — 
Royalists staunch, provincials with their grudges! — 
Mayors, attorneys, treasurers, secretaries, 
Manhattan's magnates, city functionaries, 
The college presidents, the senior pastors. 
These were our chartered cx-officio masters. 
Then came our great trustees, elect and chosen, — 
In powdered wigs and silver-buckled hosen ; — 



34 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING 

The courtly Livingstons, Verplancks, DeLanceys,— 
Leaders in worthy deeds, or Fashion's fancies ;- 
The Beekmans, Murrays, Lispenards, Earl Stirling-,— 
Whose charge at Monmouth sent the Briton whirl- 
ing! 
Duane, Provoost, the Waltons, Pells, and Masons : 
The Kings, and Moores, and Morrises, and Creigh- 

tons ; 
The Jays, and Ogdens, Troups, and Laights ; the 

Astors — 
Enriched by royal sables, seals, and castors !— 
The Dixes, Potters, Rutherfurd, and Ruggles, 
Columbia's long-tried friends through toils and 

struggles ; 
The Hobarts, Hoffmans, Harpers, Fishes, Duers,— 
Columbia's patriarch founders and renewers,— 
New York's old names in trafhc, lore, invention, 
And scores besides as proud, the muse despairs to 
mention. 

Hail venerable Johnson! Sage and Founder, 
Kinsman and namesake of the great expounder 
Of England's tongue and learning! Grave and 

*' clerkly," — 
The friend of Burnet, Franklin, Seeker, Berkeley,— 
First President of King's!— His learned sedateness 
Lacked only genius' fire to seal his greatness. 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 35 

Next came ]\Iylcs Cooper, Oxford's classic scholar, 
Renowned alike for learning, wit, and choler ! 
The humanist, the orator and poet. 
The Torv% too, and cared not who should know it. 
But young America for Freedom shouted, 
And Hamilton's bold pen his teacher's routed ; 
And yet his master's form the youth defended, 
When, in one night, his presidency ended ! 
Along Broadway the wrathful freemen pouring, 
Burst on the classic hall like tempest roaring ! 
Then, while in front harangued his young protector. 
From bed and back door leaped the frightened 

rector ! 
He " stopped not on the manner" of his hieing. 
But cleared the college fence, with truce-fiag flying ! 
'' Retired'' \ — the ancient roster prints it, shrewdly ! 
W^did! — while round him brick-bats hurtled rudely! 
He made good time ! That record were a stunner 
To any peeled and greased Olympic runner! 
E'en fiery Pegasus, that flying pacer. 
Had brok'n his wind, if matched with such a racer! , 
Thus through the solemn midnight's shadows dreary 
Flitted our Tory Prex, a specter eerie. 
Till, like a classic god, in garments scanty. 
He found, by Hudson's shore, a friendly shanty! 
Across the sea the Briton's frigate bore him. 
And left the New World's muses laughing o'er him ! 



36 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Lo, now, a strife two worlds with thunder shaking. 
While new-born Hercules his bonds is breaking! — 
The anguish, agony, and revolution 
That gave us freedom, rights, and constitution! 
Behold King's College closed! The haunt of muses 
A patriot barrack for the nation's uses! 
Her sons divided, — most with Freedom siding, — 
Names crowned with glory evermore abiding ! 
Her gallant soldiers rise, Ritzema fearless, 
Dunscomb, and Troup, Van Courtlandt pure and 

peerless ; 
Willctt, the '' Liberty Boys," heroic leader, 
Who held Fort Stanwix 'gainst the doom decreed 

her; 
And o'er her walls the stars and stripes first flying ; 
Piled Briton, Tory, Indian, 'neath them dying ; 
And crushed Burgoyne's right wing, and foiled inva- 
sion. 
Till Saratoga's splendor saved the nation 1 
Provoost, the reverend patriot, scholar, writer, 
Who wore, with peace, a bishop's stainless miter; — 
Benson, sage, jurist, regent, legislator, 
Whom Andre's captors own their vindicator ; — 
Gouverneur Morris, diplomat far-seeing. 
Statesman, sage, orator, in one agreeing; — 
Great Chancellor Livingston, whose mind sagacious 
Acquired Louisiana's empire spacious, — 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARA'IXG. 37 

Doubling, and more, his country's territory, — 
A deed, to crown his name with quenchless glory ! 
Nor this alone, but Fulton's genius aiding. 
The steamship's triumph bears his name, unfading ! 
Columbia helped to snatch old Neptune's scepter, — 
And still her ardent youth, her ancient fame have 
kept her ! 

Lo, these, though great, as stars their light con- 
cealing. 
Fade from two suns, their splendors now revealing, — 
Illustrious Jay, and Hamilton astounding. 
With boyish pen a sage's lore confounding ! 
See Jay : — when Britain's wrath above us trembled. 
His call this new world's Congress first assembled; 
His pen its voice expressed to Europe's millions. 
Its message shaped to royalty's pavilions. 
He gave this mighty state its law organic, 
And held Spain friendly through all Europe's panic. 
His voice, with Franklin, Adams, heard at Paris, 
Bade carnage cease, and Peace with Freedom marry ! 
The first chief justice of the new^-born nation, 
He led great Marshall in that lofty station, 
Chosen once more, to follow, but refusing. 
To rule his Empire State, the rather, choosing ; — 
Till, past his four-score years, man's rounded number, 
The spotless sage and statesman sank to slumber, — 



38 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Revered, — beloved! — A Christian patriot stainless! 
The Huguenot's pride, — rebuke of atheists brainless ! 

Ah, glorious Hamilton ! What strains shall sing 
thee ! 
What laurels new can thy Columbia bring thee ! 
From brainy Scotland's ancient earls descended. 
With Huguenotic fires maternal blended, — 
A genius born ! — of tropic birth and fervor, — 
Of vast ambition, yet ne'er time's base server. 
In classic halls, old forms and trammels spurning, 
His giant pace devoured the road to learning! 
While gaping boobies whimpered for vacations. 
This eagle boy grasped problems vexing nations ! 
Self-trained in war's dread arts, the cannon's rattle 
Beheld him hero, in Long Island's battle ! 
When Washington, — brave Putnam's skill defeated,— 
Salvation snatched from ruin, and retreated, — 
All that tremendous night, while veteran valor 
Quaked at the risk, and bronzed cheeks blanched 

Avith pallor, 
One steadfast soul, one eye unblenching, hovered 
O'er all our rear, and every pathway covered, — 
The rear-guard's awful task, — its brave commander 
Columbia's nineteen-year-old Alexander! 
Washington's Aid, — in Yorktown's glory sharer,— 
In statecraft's toils his genius shone still rarer ! 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. .39 

When Freedom sank to shame and degradation, 
Bound by that rope of sand, '' Confederation,'' — 
With scarce ori^anic system or vitality, — 
Mere protoplasmic jelly of nationality ! — 
Great Hamilton's pen, with Madison's united, 
The sage, immortal " Federalist " indited ! 
Its one great thought of " Union," all-inspiring, 
Wrought re-creative, all the chaos firing, 
Till union came ! The Constitution's pages, — 
That wisest, mightiest charter of the ages ! — 
Flowed from the mind that wrought the consumma- 
tion ; — 
What Washington made free, Hamilton made a na- 
tion ! 
And died in making I by a viper bitten. 
Whose venomed head his matchless hand had smit- 
ten ! 
So patriot LINCOLN, like Apollo slaying 
The Python on a nation's vitals preying, — 
Smit by his golden shafts, like sunbeams flying, — 
Fell, — by th' expiring monster's venom dying ! 

Hail, now, the years of Peace ! — 'Neath her pro- 
tection, 
All hail Columbia's glorious resurrection! n 

Her Easter birth from Avar's dire wounds and gashes j 

Her Phoenix fliorht from desolation's ashes! 1^"' 



40 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Then friends return, — the sons of freemen martyreri ; 
And powers enlarged, by Freedom's senate char- 
tered ! 
Then eager youth, once more her portals thronging, 
Burn with those fires to patriot blood belonging ! 
Then worthies rise, a new-born generation, 
Now blending with their sires in veneration ; — 
Our second Johnson, learned, our second founder, 
Who framed our new Columbia broader, sounder ; — 
Great Clinton, statesman, ruler, legislator, — 
Among the wisest, greatest, few were greater ! 
He toiled for science, schools, and education, 
And gave the earth new streams for navigation ! 
Our Kent, and Betts, and D wight, and Lieber s glor}-, 
In law match Harvard's venerated Story ! 
Our classic Anthon's Greek, and Drisler's Latin, 
Teach countless youth the tongues the Muses chat 

in! 
Our Davies' three-legged nothing's integration 
Outsweeps sublimest winged imagination ! 
The mind leaps forth in logical ecstatics, 
To dance the waltz of worlds with mathematics! 

Lo, now, the ancient Triviiim and Quadrivium^ 
Dissolved in modern Learning's vast lixivium ! 
All tongues, all literatures, all history, sifted ; — 
The glyptic seals from dateless ages lifted ; — 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNIIVG. 4I 

Man's past and present searched through every na- 
tion ; — 
All nature's mysteries ransacked, through creation ; — 
Man's microscopic foes unmasked and raided ; — 
Light's tell-tale beams from far-off worlds un- 

braided ; — 
The records read, earth's rocky scrolls have treas- 
ured ;— 
The glittering whirls of star-dust chased and meas- 
ured ; — 
The gulfs of light, th' abyss of sun-drifts, sounded, 
Whose anthem through eternity has bounded ; — 
The soul of man — the one thing living, seeing, 
Whose tentacles whip this infinite sea of being, — 
Its origin, nature, powers, and speculation, 
Its birth sublime, its speechless destination, — 
Its Cause, uncaused unseen, yet all-beholding, 
This universal frame creating, moulding, — 
Where Reason, Thought, Philosophy, exploring. 
Led on by Faith, fall prostrate and adoring, — 
Such is the range of Learning's empire mighty — 
Her modern Cyclopcedia Infinita ! 

On such a height, to-day, Columbia standing 
O'erlooks a realm unmeasured, still expanding ! 
The vast domain for Learning's conquests waiting, 
The march of mind, this planet re-creating ! 



42 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Columbia's Pisgah ! Canaan looms before her ! — 
The future's visions sweep prophetic o'er her ! — 
Around her throne her schools revolve in luster ! — • 
Beneath her sway her g-rand alumni muster ! — 
The New World's vastest city boasts her honor, 
And showers its gifts and benisons upon her! — 
Her chairs are seats of sages ! All the forces 
Of civilization swell her vast resources! 
Her stately halls, a pile, forever growing, 
Attest her tide of treasure still o'erflowing! 
Her ardent youth by thousands rise to meet her, 
And unborn myriads stretch their hands to greet 

her! 
Time's grandest age around her booms and thun- 
ders ! 
Before her dawn a grander century's wonders! 
On God's great Word she stands; her seal, un- 
broken, 
Still speaks that truth by pious founders spoken ; — 
Truth's central sun is God's self-revelation — 
"7;^ Thy great Light be our Ilhwiination !'' 
On this broad rock, unchanging, everlasting, 
The hopes, the scoffs, of doubt forever blasting, 
She greets all creeds, all schools, all congregations, 
All races mingling from remotest nations. 
Her ancient liturgy, for ages cherished, — 
Still chaunting on, while foes that scorned it per- 
ished, — 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 43 

She yet repeats; but hails, with friendly greeting, 
Kirk, Quaker, Calvinist, or " Methodist meeting," 
The city-bred, the rudest backwoods ranger. 
Gentile or Jew, the nativ^e and the stranger, 
As brethren all; nor spits her spiteful spittle 
At those who've too niucJi credo, or too little ! 
Nor fears to scorn, howe'er proclaimed and vaunt- 
ed, — 
Howe'er by bards or dilettanti chaunted, — 
That modern humbug, trumpeted and toasted, — 
That most illiberal fraud, — as ** liberalism' boasted ! 

But truce to-day ! To-day Columbia gathers 
Her hoary seers, and venerated fathers ; 
She calls her wanderers home ; her schools and 

sages ; 
Her youth, still conning o'er their classic pages ; 
Her merchants, bankers, senators, and statesmen ; 
Her millionaires, who stand old Plutus' gatesmen ; 
Her warriors, tried, who saved this glorious Union ; 
Her learned divines, from many a pure communion; 
Her jurists, orators, physicians, writers, 
Her bishops grave, whose lives adorn their miters ; 
Her guests from sister schools, a band Platonic, 
Whose honors grace our league Amphictyonic, 
From Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian orders, 
Churches and States, throughout the nation's 

borders ! 



44 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

Thus proud, of yore, thronged ever}^ Grecian nation 
To crown their great Olympic celebration ! 
Thus gods and heroes, o'er the stadium gazing, 
Set all the soul of Greece with glory blazing ! 
Nay, what were Grecian gods, those contests firing, 
To these bright beams from beauty's soul, inspiring? 
Or what w^ere Venuses, w4th foam to swim in, 
To Freedom's cultured, pure, and queenly women? 

Hail, then, to-day, Columbia's glad Centennial I 
And Hail, by faith, her far-off, great Millennial ! 
Blest be that day ! And though this chaplet humble 
Shall long ere then to cold oblivion crumble, 
Blest be the bard who then shall raise her psean ! 
His be the fire to mount the empyrean, 
And prove, while all the muses crown his wooing. 
That Learning's glorious march brings not sw^eet 
Song's undoing ! 



THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 45 



CENTENNIAL HYMN. 

Tune, " Austria y 

Hail, Columbia! Alma Mater! 

Queen of Learning, thron'd and crown'd ! 
Hail with shout, and song- and gladness, 

From thy sons who throng thee 'round ! 
Hail thy classic halls, whose arches 

Echo back our joyous la}^ ! 
Hail thy portals, towers and temples, 

On thy great centennial day ! 

Where Manhattan's myriads gather 

'Twixt the Hudson and the sea, 
With a continent behind her. 

Home of millions great and free ; 
With an ocean spread before her. 

Girt with kingdoms famed of yore. 
There Columbia lifts her beacon, 

Learning's lighthouse on the shore. 



46 THE PROGRESS OF LEARNING. 

'Round her rolls the tide of commerce, 

Where the paths of nations meet ; 
Trade and science, art and empire, 

Pour their tribute at her feet : 
Old King's College with its memories 

Rises from the storied past ; 
Unborn ages beckon onward 

To a future grand and vast. 

Hail, Columbia! Alma Mater! 

Graving on thy signet bright, 
'Neath that Name, Truth's sun and centre, 

'' In thy light shall zve see light /" 
Ke'er that glorious legend perish ! 

Let thy sons, an endless line, 
All thy ancient virtues cherish. 

All thy founders' faith divine ! 

Hail, Columbia ! Alma Mater! 

On thy proud centennial day ! 
Glad thank-offerings crown thy altars I 

Blessings*" speed thee on thy way ! 
Heads must whiten, halls must crumble, 

Classes, sages, centuries fiy ; 
But Columbia, bright Columbia, 

Dear Columbia, shall not die. G. L. T. 



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